Creativity is indeed something that has to be cherished by an individual from a very young age. The generation of new ideas shows how children engage their time and use their brains for fruitful activities. It definitely helps the child to focus and be more thoughtful of their actions and also shows how they perceive things around them and also how they frame solutions on their own.
As they start taking small steps towards self-learning through creative ways, it is the duty of the tutor to respectfully guide them and make them understand what is right and what is wrong. This initiates a better relationship between the teachers and the students. It results in the cognitive development of the child.
The attention span of children is fairly low when compared to adults. It is impossible to let a child concentrate for more than 10 to 15 minutes on a topic. This is a key challenge faced by tutors all over the world. With the digital age thriving, tutors are now looking forward to various means in e-form to get and improve the children’s attention and listening skills in class. Enhancing the lesson plans by incorporating various routine activities in novice form can also help them be more interactive and interested in class activities.
Also Read: How to Improve Collaboration, Communication, Creative and Critical Thinking (4 C’s) in Students?
Let us now look into how we can engage children in class using digital materials and use them to spur creativity:
- Digital Storytelling
Who doesn’t love a good story? Digital storytelling is one of the best ways to engage kids in a much more exciting way. Stories have imbibed morals, which help them learn discipline and new things in a very fun and alluring way. It is also a good way to help them understand the history and culture of their ancestors and even their peers as well. There are many applications of digital storytelling that have been known to create wondrous experiences for children and many effective ways of conveying lessons by tutors. Here are some of the different storytelling applications that will assist you:
- Side Story: Side story gives picture slides for the story along with voice narration.
- Comic Story: You can put your graphic skills on to play and create comic stories for your students.
- Storybird: This is a tool that can turn words into visual images and, thereby, a complete story. You have to just put down your creative skills, cook up a story, enter it, and voila! You have a complete storybook.
2. Creative Thinking Blogs
Giving a kid a space to pen down their thoughts in writing or through pictures is a good way to enhance creativity on a larger scale. As there are no particular expectations from the kids, they have complete freedom to do whatever they want. It also shows the kid that they can also look further into other children’s blogs and get inspired. They can also connect with their peers’ thoughts in a much more effective way. They can also take positive input from classmates and tutors.
3. Art and Craft
Art and craft are two of the best ways to encourage children to bring in different kinds of handy work in the most creative way. There are many digital avenues that can actually help induce innovative ideas among children.
- Crayola: It has a lot of tutorial videos that help kids make a lot of DIY projects with effective step-by-step instructions on how to make crafty things.
- Jumpstart: Jumpstart primarily focuses on teaching children about the colors around them. Once they know the colors, you can slowly introduce them to different coloring assignments.
- HGTV: HGTV helps children explore the world of creative clay modeling.
4. Music Tools
Music is the essence of the soul. It is a known fact that music can bring mental peace and also better concentration and memory power in children and adults alike. Music therapy is gaining momentum in today’s world. Introducing children to music at a young age can bring about exquisite changes in their thinking process.
- Chrome Labn helps children understand music and related concepts.
- Piano Patch Lessons: There are innumerable piano lessons ranging from easy to difficult that help students to explore their love for music through piano lessons.
- Creating: It is an online portal that helps students create their own music.
- Violin Online: Assists students in engaging in violin lessons.
5. Brainstorming and mapping sessions
These sessions are conducted on a routine basis in every class. Such sessions excite children and also help them venture into creative modules and bring out effective outcomes. There are a large number of digital tools that have various techniques in them that help induces creativity and also give students productive ways to help in a streamlined learning process.
6. Infographics
Infographics are an important part of adult life, but they can also be used effectively to ensure productivity in a child’s creative line. Infographics are helpful pictorial representations of almost any topic or concept under the sun. They help in creating visually appealing designs, which are available in Canva and can make the child’s process of memorizing concepts far more interesting. It also helps bring out their creativity to a great extent.
Also Read: How to Teach the Digital Generation?
In this new digital world, it is extremely important to use tools that align with the growth around us in classrooms as well. Children are constantly subjected to many kinds of devices on a regular basis. Giving them an opportunity to use the devices in a productive way can be successfully completed by approaching such innovative ways in the classroom.